Our first PayPal problem
We knew it would happen eventually... but I didn't think it would happen so quickly!
PayPal offers micropayments directly, without having to deal with an aggregation site such as tipjoy.com.
That's good news! Why? Because, at the moment, every donation at tip-joy.com in appreciation of a good cow-themed poem costs me at least $.35 (plus a percentage) because it goes to my personal account. That's the purpose of a micropayment solution -- to bring those fees down to the point where it makes sense to collect tiny amounts of money.
The catch to PayPal's solution is that you can only convert a "business" account to the micropayment scale; it can't apply to a "personal" account.
I'm not a business. I'm a person. But, hey, that's okay; there's got to be a way to make it work, right?
They force you to choose a category, and while they have plenty of categories, most of them are in the "selling things" world. Whatever I picked, PayPal didn't like it:
All to say that something like tipjoy.com (the micropayment site) is a good idea... except that your collected funds get sent back to you via... wait for it... wait for it... PayPal!
(In fairness, that's not the only way you can get it... but if you want "real" money, that's the way it happens there...)
PayPal didn't have any sort of "discuss this account hold" contact form, so I submitted a .gif screenshot (only images are accepted -- no .txt or .pdf) of my explanation that I'm not claiming to be a legal non-profit (and have switched my category to "Entertainment - Digital Content", even though I'M NOT SELLING ANYTHING!).
More to come, I'm sure!
PayPal offers micropayments directly, without having to deal with an aggregation site such as tipjoy.com.
That's good news! Why? Because, at the moment, every donation at tip-joy.com in appreciation of a good cow-themed poem costs me at least $.35 (plus a percentage) because it goes to my personal account. That's the purpose of a micropayment solution -- to bring those fees down to the point where it makes sense to collect tiny amounts of money.
The catch to PayPal's solution is that you can only convert a "business" account to the micropayment scale; it can't apply to a "personal" account.
I'm not a business. I'm a person. But, hey, that's okay; there's got to be a way to make it work, right?
They force you to choose a category, and while they have plenty of categories, most of them are in the "selling things" world. Whatever I picked, PayPal didn't like it:
We require additional information about your account for the following reason(s):Now, I appreciate that PayPal is trying to avoid becoming the fraud capital of the internet; right now they're somewhere between "fraud third-world country" and "fraud second-world country" and they want to stay there... but I'm starting to wonder if the PayPal horror stories were true, and it sure looks like PayPal isn't a good micropayment solution for "the little guy".
May 13, 2009: PayPal requires accounts within the charity / non-profit category to provide us with some additional information regarding their organization. Your account was identified as falling within this classification upon a recent review. If we do not receive a response, we may have to place limitations on the ability to access your account.
All to say that something like tipjoy.com (the micropayment site) is a good idea... except that your collected funds get sent back to you via... wait for it... wait for it... PayPal!
(In fairness, that's not the only way you can get it... but if you want "real" money, that's the way it happens there...)
PayPal didn't have any sort of "discuss this account hold" contact form, so I submitted a .gif screenshot (only images are accepted -- no .txt or .pdf) of my explanation that I'm not claiming to be a legal non-profit (and have switched my category to "Entertainment - Digital Content", even though I'M NOT SELLING ANYTHING!).
More to come, I'm sure!
posted by emlarson at
1:32 PM
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